Sean Dengler.

For those who do not know, Douglas Avenue and the road it turns into, Euclid Avenue, is one of the major thoroughfares of the Des Moines metro. Douglas runs from the western part of Waukee, turning into Euclid in the middle of Des Moines, before ending on the east side of Des Moines at the road which becomes Highway 330. It is probably odd to be reading about a road in Des Moines in Tama County, but it is more than a road.

It is a look at the “progress” our society has made since World War II, and those who have been left behind. I drive along Douglas Avenue frequently. It is the main road through Urbandale, and I live on the very east side of Urbandale. I am a stone’s throw away from living in Des Moines. My house was built in 1939 when Urbandale’s population was still smaller than Traer’s.

Despite being less than 10 miles away from a Target, my neighborhood reminds me of driving into Traer from the east on Highway 8. This neighborhood has old-growth trees throughout many yards with a few old shop buildings scattered throughout “downtown” Urbandale. While the old high school gave way to a Walgreens, other buildings and parks, including the elementary, middle, and high schools, still give the resemblance of a city center.

When one travels from east Urbandale to Waukee, everything changes due to “progress.” Houses grow larger, and the community feels stretched out. The city starts to feel splintered as roads abandon the grid pattern for neighborhoods with only one way in and one way out. Unless you are lucky enough to know a back way, using cardinal directions is not going to help.

After a brief reprieve of farmland between Clive and Waukee, the sameness feeling of all the neighborhoods still holds. All the houses look like they were made by a house-sized cookie cutter. It is the suburbia of suburbia. As I have often looked at home prices in these areas, I assume everyone is a doctor or a lawyer. I cannot fathom how anyone affords these large homes in these neatly orchestrated neighborhoods, located on smaller and smaller pieces of land.

Everything about these neighborhoods feels slightly off. It does not feel like home. It does not feel like Traer. For example, I love going to the Merle Hay Target. The people shopping at it are the real people. We might all look a little different, have different income levels, but we are all in the same place at the same time. This is the opposite of Targets in or by neighborhoods which have this sameness. It reminds me of the difference between the Cedar Falls and Waterloo Walmarts.

The diversity of income levels is good. People are exposed to different experiences, and this is how communities grow and prosper. When neighborhoods are made the same, it lacks creativity. It lacks that special connection and separates people from each other. What “progress” has really been made by these newer developments?

Gone are walkable communities where one can walk to a coffee shop and the grocery store. Driving a vehicle is nice, but when the only option is to drive, it separates the community. Neighborhoods should be developed by the locals who know what they want. They do not care about the bottom line. This feels right. It feels like Traer.

Cities resemble the human experience. Not the car experience, not the developer experience. Humans made cities before cars and codes, and they should make them again. Sometimes, “progress” is not really “progress.” Unfortunately, the sense of community has been harmed. While some may say rural Iowa is stuck in the past, rural Iowa, when it has had a chance, has developed in a better way than these neighborhoods which are all the same. While we have followed a specific housing development model for the last several decades, this should change. Our communities and neighborhoods deserve to grow and thrive together, and not be separated.

Sean Dengler is a writer, comedian, farmer, and host of the Pandaring Talk podcast who grew up on a farm between Traer and Dysart. You can reach him at sean.h.dengler@gmail.com.